Hitting the Markets

Monday was a stay-at-home day. I took Simeon to the playground in the morning while Erika's PWOC music group rehearsed. In the evening we had Cubbies (Awana) where Erika has a table of kids to supervise for craft and to hear their verses.

This morning we took an easy subway ride to visit my cousin Sarah who is married to a Korean and has lived in Seoul for years. Sarah is great with kids. Her husband made it very clear that he is ready for grandchildren. Their college-aged daughter Susie enjoys Erika so we had a good time. When we put Erika and Simeon on the train to get back in time for school, Sarah, Susie and I caught a bus. I was glad for that experience because I may try to get to a different ice rink later this week, and the one I'm thinking of would involve a bus.

Sarah took me for lunch to one of her favorite hole-in-the wall places in Dongdaemun Market at the 500-year-old East Gate of the city, (which of course, is now totally surrounded by high modern buildings). We wended our way through the food section of the market.

Here's the kitchen of our restaurant where they are frying the bean cakes Sarah recommended.

They did have a small dining room back behind.

After lunch Sarah showed me a bit of the market. This is the bakery market. I guess Koreans don't usually bake at home, so she comes here for things like baking powder and chocolate chips that she can't buy in a grocery store.

There were cookie cutters of every shape and size.

Now, you probably have been envisioning this market area as a square block or so. A square mile or so would probably be more accurate. The buildings on either side of this canal are just a small part.

The building on the right as far as you can see contains clothing stalls, the sort where retailers come and order fifty or a hundred of an item. There were shops with nothing but hats--20 shops in a row with nothing but hats. Aisle after aisle, block after block of clothing shops. The building on the left is fabric--stall after stall of trims, then stalls of button and sequins, not to mention aisle after aisle for multiple floors of bolts of fabric. Very overwhelming. My favorite was the shops with elegant fabrics and embroidered pieces ready for traditional Korean outfits still used for weddings and celebrations. They even have seamstresses on site.

I am not a big shopper; I'm mostly a looker; but I did have some shopping I needed to do in Korea. The gradeschool of my other grandchildren is near the university and very multicultural. The librarian told Katie that she finished the year with $150 still in her budget that she wanted to spend on Korean language books for the Korean-speaking kids attending the school. I agreed to do the shopping.

Susie had her own errands to run, but she joined us to go to Kyobo, a major bookstore in the center of Seoul. This store is so big it even has it's own subway entrance. Here is a small corner of the children's section.

It was no less overwhelming than the other markets, but I was grateful to have Sarah's help to figure out what we were looking at. Susie pointed out some stuff that was popular when she was in fifth grade. We got some translated classics, including one of the current Newbery winners, and some major series. I ordered A Single Shard, an older Newbery set in 12th-century Korea that I loved. They prefer to deliver rather than have me come back to get it. Never in America!

When we were finished, Sarah and Susie pointed me to the correct train and sent me on my way, a bit nervously I thought. I texted when I had successfully arrived home. I'll have to see them again because my book is being delivered to their house. :-)